Saint John, NB, May 13, 2009: On May 8th, 9th, and 10th local developers, designers and entrepreneurs gathered together for a community building startup event in the uptown of Saint John, NB. “We intended the event to be a networking opportunity for the local software development community, and hoped that we might be in position to launch one new software a company by the end of the weekend,” says Michael Wilcott, one of the organizers of the event, “But we have managed to exceed that goal”.

Three different teams, which formed during the course of the event, are now in the process of incorporating in order to continue the development and marketing of the ideas that brought them together starting on Friday night.

GeoCure is a product that seeks to leverage the tremendous growth in adoption of social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter in order to track and present infection rates for many communicable diseases. “Young people like me don’t watch the news, read a paper, or even visit online new sources like CNN to get our information.” said Robert Foley, who pitched the idea of GeoCure, “We get all of our information from social media, a form of news which is more immediate and less filtered than traditional sources.” GeoCure seeks to collect content from various social media sources and use it to track the spread of infections in order to assist consumers in evaluating their risks. “We also think that there are potential applications for various public health organizations, as well as private enterprises that are in the health care space” stated Robert.

Another product that caught participants attention was ‘eCeipts’, an electronic receipt system that holds the potential to completely transform the way people shop and buy goods. “After every transaction at any retailer the final step in the process is for the cash register to print a paper receipt.” says Alex Scott who presented the eCeipts idea at the event, “Most of us simply throw the paper receipts away, or we lose them. For those who need to keep their receipts for the purposes of tracking expenses, losing them is a major hassle”. eCeipts looks to save consumers these hassles by capturing the information from traditional paper receipts and instead sending it to a database that sits behind a website. The website can be used to store and organize an individual’s receipts in a convenient and powerful format. The eCeipts team is in the process of incorporating and has launched a website at www.eceipts.ca as the first step toward building their eCeipts solution.

The final group that is moving toward incorporation is working on a web-based game called ‘Karmundi’. “We all believe we have an idea that creates a whole new genre of game that we call Progressive Social Gaming”, says Michael Wilcott, spokesman for the six member team that launched www.karmundi.com as part of the 54Hours weekend event. “I’d describe it as part Pokémon, part scavenger hunt, and part social networking” said Wilcott. “We are targeting families who are looking for fun activities that they can do together, that also allows parents to teach positive social values to their children while leveraging the tremendous power of the web to create communities”. The Karmundi team, whose slogan is “Karma. For The World”, is looking to launch a pilot of their new service by September of this year.

Jeff Roach of propel said the event is a perfect activity for stimulating entrepreneurship and new business formation at a grassroots level. “Many people have good ideas but very few are able to visualize what that idea looks like as a business.” says Roach. “This weekend event allows people to have fun expanding their ideas and having others share in building on their idea and growing a team of shared interests. We appreciate the efforts and enthusiasm of Jason Richard and Michael Wilcott who organized this event and are proud to sponsor this and future weekend events”. Roach said the propel Accelerator supports startup companies like these to help them grow rapidly to maturity and profitability with the support of a broad provincial network and hopes to see companies enter the program from events like this.

As to the 54Hours event itself, Matt Doherty, who joined the eCeipts team, summed it up this way, “…54hours was an experience akin to throwing a handful of seeds in a garden and seeing what grew. To have such a talented cross-section of people come together and create three businesses with actual opportunities is such a great outcome. Everyone who attended brought something different and being surrounded by these people showed me how myopic we can become in our day to day life. It was refreshing to be able to learn from and to interact with such a varied group. If I had to
pick one word to describe the weekend, it would be 'intense'”.

Organizers of New Brunswick’s first 54Hours event have already been approached to hold additional events in both Fredericton and Moncton over the coming year. For updates regarding these events and other 54Hour activities visit www.54hours.com and www.propelict.com.

Media Inquires:
Michael Wilcott, (506) 647-3269
Jeff Roach – (506) 642-9029

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